Elon Musk announces ‘Grokipedia’ as rival to Wikipedia

Elon Musk has recently said that his artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, is developing a digital encyclopedia called "Grokipedia" to compete with Wikipedia, which he has frequently criticised for what he describes as 'political bias'.

In a post on X on September 30, Musk said, "We are building Grokipedia @xAI. Will be a massive improvement over Wikipedia. Frankly, it is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe." 

His comments came in response to a claim from entrepreneur David Sacks that "Wikipedia is hopelessly biased."

Musk has often targeted Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, labelling it "woke" and even suggesting it should be defunded, pointing to its reliance on donations. Earlier this year, he also attacked the platform after it included an entry about him allegedly making a Nazi-like gesture at a Trump inauguration event.

The project will be built using xAI's chatbot Grok, which Musk launched as a rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Grok has been trained on web data, including public posts from X. 

In a recent podcast appearance, Musk suggested that the technology could eventually replicate the work of human volunteers who edit and update Wikipedia, while also correcting what he views as bias or inaccuracy.

In 2023, Musk publicly offered to donate $1 billion to Wikipedia if it changed its name to "Dickipedia," in a tweet.